Clouds of dust and splashes of mud in fight for speed glory

Left, top: Alaster Cavenagh’s Porsche 911 in full flight on CS Nkunga stage during the Day 2 of the KCB Safari Rally. Bottom: Ian Duncan and Amaar Slatch splash through mud in their Mitsubishi Evo 10. Right: Jassi Chatte and Gugu Panesar in action in their Mitsubishi Evo 10. PHOTOS | ANWAR SIDI 

By KOOME KAZUNGU

In Summary

• It was Jaspreet Chatthe who powered his Lancer Evo X to an amazing podium finish.

The just ended KCB Safari Rally was a tale of resilience and endurance seen in punctures, misfiring engines, and drama.

Car manufactures grabbed the precious chance to showcase their high-powered engines ranging from Land Rover, Ford, Subaru, Audi VW, and Toyota.

Traders did a roaring business rally enthusiasts followed the action from KICC, Machakos County, Naromoru, Nanyuki and Meru Town.

Sports and Culture Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario flagged off the event that others have said is “one of our international sports which brings tourists to Kenya.”

Baldev Chager was the first off the ramp and, by noon, 20 rally cars had passed through the Konza stage with Finland ace Tapio Laukkanen leading followed by Raaji Bharij.

Tapio continued with his dominance at Cs2 with a time of 25.59 minutes while Raaji Bharji trailed by a minute. Hapz Sagoo rolled in his Subaru Impreza while Imran Mogul was disappointed after his Subaru N10 broke rear drive shafts at the Konza Stage. Others who dropped out on Day One were Rupesh Chauhan, Khan and Rob Hellier.

Heavy downpour

By end of Day One, Tapio had powered his Subaru Impreza, navigated by Pasi Torma, to victory, with Raaji’s Mitsubishi Evolution coming in second position.

An S2000 Proton Neo Satria gave Kenya’s Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo a third place followed by Jaspreet Chatthe, Manvir Baryan, Onkar Rai, Baldev Chager then Ian Duncan, who had clocked 49 minutes 56 seconds to a top-8 finish.

The Day One leg was staged on closed private farm roads in Konza and Machakos areas.

On Saturday, action was in the Mount Kenya region where the drivers would tackle 420km on Day 2, traversing Lengetia in Naro Moru, Loldaiga in Nanyuki, Ngare Ndare, and Nkunga stretches.

The drivers tackled the Lengetia stretch for 29.75km with Ian Duncan emerging the fastest overall by a time of time 23.50 minutes, while Tapio extended his lead by 1:10.37. The real challenge came at Ngare Ndare stage.

A few minutes before the drivers covered the Ngare Ndare route, there was a heavy downpour that changed the terrain a dusty stretch to a muddy, slippery one, testing the drivers’ skill and ability to fight.

Very bad!

Tapio Laukannen proved a force to reckon with on the Loldaiga 44 km stage, going faster than Ian by 9.79 minutes.